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Review: Tennis in the Face | PSNStores

Review: Tennis in the Face

Posted by on January 5th, 2015 | 0 Comments | Tags: ,

No surprises here. Tennis in the Face has, as the name implies, hitting people in the face with tennis balls. Developer 10tons has worked on porting some of their mobile games to console, such as King Oddball, Sparkle, and Crimsonland. Tennis in the Face is the next game the developer has decided to port over, and the overall product is a fun and addicting puzzle game with a surprising number of levels and scores to obtain.

Famed tennis player Pete Pagassi was a previous tennis champion, but he fell under the influence of Explodz, an energy drink, that ruined his career. Pete uses the Oddington Metro Map as his guide to wreak havoc throughout the city and to find the Explodz factory and destroy it. The Oddington Metro Map serves as the level select, with 8 districts and 13 levels per district. If you complete a level with the minimum number of shots possible, a crown will be awarded for that level. In addition, medals that are also tied to trophies are completed by doing various tasks in the games and they in turn unlock other mini-games and challenges. Online leaderboards are available for special stages and total score, but not for individual levels.

At its core, the game resembles an Angry Birds type game. Angle your shot correctly and hit enemies in the face with tennis balls to complete the level. Tennis in the Face changes the formula with the different physics of the tennis ball. When fired, the tennis ball is shot in a straight line, but after bouncing off a few objects and walls, it begins to slow down and begins to arc. I found a surprising amount of enjoyment watching the ball bounce around, not knowing where the ball would end up. Occasionally it feels like the game is more luck based than skill based, but planning and lining up the perfect shot is satisfying and rewarding. At times, some levels have you hitting a can of Explodz and its trajectory is fired in an arc that can explode to hit nearby enemies or obstacles. Enemies in the game include businessmen with briefcases, which, if you hit the briefcase it gives you a point bonus. Other enemies include riot police who holds shields that defend themselves from the front, and scientists that wear hazmat suits take up two hits to knock out. Replaying levels and trying to obtain the crown in each level is somewhat addicting.

The transition from the small screen of mobile devices to the big screen has worked well. The colors are bright and pleasing to the eye, and none of the characters or objects look stretched in any way. As far as a soundtrack, for each of the levels, only one track plays over and over. It can get tiring listening to the same song constantly. On the PS4, the touchpad can be used to line up accurate shots and it works well, but the thumbsticks work just as well.

Tennis in the Face is a good value for $5 on the PSN. The game has a wide range of levels and is highly replayable, especially if you want to obtain all of the crowns for each level. If you are looking for a low-cost puzzle game, then Tennis in the Face is a good value.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here.

General Info

  • Reliance on luck